


new, after a thousand years

by orphan_account



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, M/M, mildish, not sure what this counts as, suffice it to say it is quite soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25296538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: For the first time in centuries, Joe is jealous.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 12
Kudos: 739





	new, after a thousand years

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fake News](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15399525) by [needyoucap](https://archiveofourown.org/users/needyoucap/pseuds/needyoucap). 



They’re having sex when he brings it up. They’re in Ireland, at the fun little cottage by the cliffs that Nicky had bought for his eight-hundredth birthday and Joe had grumbled over because Ireland was full of religious nuts but reluctantly enjoyed anyway because it made Nicky happy and also had a great view of the ocean, and he brings it up while they’re having sex. Fully halfway through the act. The foreplay is done, and they’re moving nicely along to the main attraction, Nicky just lining up to press in, when Joe, beneath him, says in a deceptively detached voice, “So what do you think of Nile?”

Nicky pauses, his dick an inch from Joe’s ass. For a second, he’s sure he misheard. “What? Nile?”

“Yes, Nile, the one Andy picked up in Afghanistan.”

Nicky waits, but no further explanation seems forthcoming. “What about Nile? What does she have to do with this?” This, of course, being sex of the type which Joe and Nicky have been having for centuries, now, without mention of young new immortals.

Joe seems to have had a change of heart. “Nothing,” he dismisses, leaning back onto his pillows, “Nothing, you’re right, carry on,” but instead of carrying on Nicky sits back on his heels, hands falling from the headboard to his own thighs. He knows better than to drop these things so easily.

“Tell me what you meant,” he says.

Joe sighs and pushes himself up, too. “It’s nothing,” he says, yanking the blankets up to cover his lap. They’re threadbare, old, probably from the eighties - they need new ones, but there never seems to be time, only visiting for spare weeks between missions, and now that they’re here for longer, other things have been on their mind than trips to buy bed linens. Nicky really needs to put it on the list, tomorrow. There are other things after all, in the world but sex.

Like this conversation.

Nicky waits.

Joe huffs. “God, sometimes you’re a sadist. It was just - I was just wondering, what you thought of her. As a person. That’s all.”

“In the middle of sex,” Nicky says dubiously. “In the middle of sex, you’ve got Nile on your mind?”

Joe shrugs, looking down. “I don’t know,” he says. “Not really. Not sure about you.”

One of the things Nicky prides himself on most, with Joe, is that after all their centuries together, he’s reached a point where, ninety-nine percent of the time, he can predict exactly what is going on in Joe’s head. It’s a nice party trick, actually, and is very useful for missions, especially stealth ones, where they can’t talk to each other out loud. But it’s failing him, now, because looking at Joe - looking at this man, the love of his life, the man he followed from the Crusades through all the fucked up European wars of independence, across the ocean and back again and through trenches filled with newly synthesized poisons - looking at him now, Nicky has absolutely no idea what he’s thinking.

“I’m going to needy to speak clearly,” Nicky says. “In Arabic, if it suits you better. Because I do not understand what you are saying here at all, and I’d like to think it’s a translation error rather than believe I do not know you as well as I thought.”

Joe’s eyes dart up to his, then, and Nicky sees when he decides to stop being flighty in the way he settles his shoulders. That, at least, is familiar. “I’m asking if you think about her that way,” Joe says. “Nile. _This_ way.” He gestures between their naked bodies, over the blankets, in the dusty room.

The meaning is unmistakable, but the thought is so absurd that for a moment or two, Nicky can only blink rather than answer. Eventually, he manages, “What? Nile - what?”

“Look, it’s -“ Joe grits his teeth. “It’s okay if you do. I get it, we’ve been together a long time, and she’s shiny and new and -“

“Do you feel this way about her?” Nicky demands. “Is this - is that where this is coming from?”

“What? No! Nicky, don’t be ridiculous. Obviously, no. I don’t have a thing for Nile.”

“Then why would I have a thing for Nile?”

“Because, you’re, you’re -“ Joe waves his hands in the air helplessly. “I don’t know, Nicky! I didn’t say you did! I was just asking!”

“Asking a ridiculous question!” Joe huffs and crosses his arms and Nicky takes a moment to consider him, the look in his eyes. He was really concerned, Nicky realizes. He really thought Nicky might want someone else.

Nicky knee-crawls forward on the comforter so he can lay his palms over Joe’s thighs. “Josef,” he says, and Joe looks over his shoulder at the ceiling, so he says, “ _My_ Josef,” and then Joe’s eyes meet his own. “I have no feelings for Nile. She is a nice girl, yes, but that is it - a nice girl. I would not want to have her in this way. I would not want to have anyone in this way but you.”

Joe considers him. Nicky sees the moment he decides to accept what Nicky is saying for the truth, because he relaxes in that full-bodied way of is - he’s an all or nothing sort of man, stiff as a board from his neck to his toes or limp like a jellyfish all over. “Okay,” he says, “That’s all I was asking,” and when Nicky leans in to kiss him, he accepts it, sweet and slow and chaste. Nicky pulls back, presses their foreheads together.

“Where is this coming from?” he asks. “You’ve never been like this before with anyone. Did I do something - did I say something -“

“No,” Joe interrupts. “Please. My love, don’t be ridiculous. It was nothing you said.”

“Then what?”

Joe shakes his head. “I don’t know. We haven’t had a new one like this before. Booker was - well, you know how he was, and Andy, she had Quynh, then. I wasn’t worried about them.”

“But you are worried about her.”

Joe tilts his head. “Its different, with immortals. You know that, I know that, it’s just - I know you love me, Nicky, don’t get this wrong. But it’s not like you’ve ever had any other options, not really. All the rest are mortals, and wrong for you, and now - here she is. An option.”

“She is nothing.”

Joe blinks. “Nicky -“

“No.” Nicky settles his hands on Joe’s jaw and pulls his gaze up to meet his. “Listen to me, Josef. I thought I had told you, but perhaps I have not said it enough. You are everything to me. You are - you are my life. You are my body, and my heart, and my soul. And that girl, that woman - she is nothing, in comparison. She is a blink on the radar of the universe, a fly on my shoulder, compared to you. I would never, ever, trade what we had for anything, least of all for something with her.”

Joe’s throat works, glistening with sweat in the low lighting. “You could have both, though,” he whispers hoarsely.

“No,” Nicky says, bending towards his lips. “No, I cannot.”

They kiss for several long moments, the feeling, after so many years, as familiar as breathing, as skin knitting itself back together. Nicky waits until he feels Joe start to harden, again, under him, until his hips start jerking against Nicky’s, to pull back. “If we keep going,” he murmurs, “Do you promise not to bring up that girl in the heat of the moment again?”

“Yes,” Joe murmurs, his hands on Nicky’s neck, thumbs drifting across his jaw. His eyes are wide and face lit up with quiet joy. Nicky loves him like this, just as he loves him always. “Yes, I promise.”

-

Afterwards, they lay breathing heavily on the bed for several long moments. Nicky considers, briefly, getting a bottle of water for the two of them, but he knows, as he usually knows, that Joe is thinking the same, and will get up to fetch it in a minute. He might also bring back snacks, a bag of crackers or a sliced apple, maybe a chocolate bar to split. Nicky, after the food, will fetch a damp towel to clean them. Then they will tuck up beside each other in bed, one behind the other, neatly curved spoons, until the two of them fall asleep. And in the morning, they will do it all over again.

This is how their life goes, Nicky knows, so he doesn’t bother to get up out of bed for a snack. He does, though, turn in place to catch a glimpse at Joe’s profile. Joe, feeling Nicky’s gaze on the side of his face, turns to meet his eyes, and smile.

“You are spending too much time with that Nile girl,” Nicky says. “You are acting like a child again. We are too old for this.”

Some might take it for an insult, but Nicky knows Joe will not, and indeed, his smile just deepens. “Maybe,” he agrees, “But it does keep life interesting, does it not?” And that, Nicky has to admit, is true.

**Author's Note:**

> for anyone who followed me from marvel, do not worry, I will get back to stevetony soon. ish. in the meantime, I am losing my mind a bit over this fun fandom, so if you haven't watched this movie yet, please go do so immediately, and then write your own fic for it, so I have more content to read. thanks a million :)
> 
> also, in regards to the fic this was inspired by, 'fake news' is one of my favorite shorter stories in the stevetony fandom in large part because I love the idea of someone blurting their insecurities during sex. that was the first thing I thought of, when I decided I wanted to do a jealousy fic like this, and hopefully it's not stealing too much to do a similar premise :)


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